Nonprofit gives hope to cancer patients

10:49 AM,
Nov. 8, 2012

Grant: Seated next to her husband, Marlon Villaluz, second from right, Aylyn Villaluz wipes her tears while speaking about her battle with breast cancer yesterday. Conchita Nelson, left, and her husband, Carl Nelson, right, also spoke of Conchita Nelson's breast cancer recurrence, and how the nonprofit group Guam Cancer Care is assisting them. "Before, I would say 'I'm dying,' but now I can say 'I'm living with cancer,'" Conchita Nelson said of the way her outlook changed since Cancer Care's involvement in her situation. The couples spoke at a press conference announcing an $800,000 grant from the Guam Cancer Trust Fund to Cancer Care.

Written by

Armando Cordoba
Pacific Daily News

By the time Aylyn Villaluz was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, she was at stage three.

"I sent her to the Philippines to get help, because we had no insurance," her husband, Marlon Villaluz, said.

Many people on Guam go to the Philippines for health care because it has specialists that Guam doesn't have, and the cost is relatively lower. Doctors in the Philippines performed a biopsy and confirmed Aylyn Villaluz's condition -- but they also told her treatment would cost 2.5 million pesos, or about $60,837. ...